Wait, isn’t England the country with the crushing penalties for libel?

I don’t know if England’s penalties are notably more crushing than those of other civil court systems(though certainly more than crushing enough to keep the little people away, and even a relatively-notable-if-not-exactly-rich guy like Simon Singh, with Guardian backup racked up some tens of thousands of pounds in expenses), just that their situation in terms of standards of proof, burden of proof, truth-as-a-defense, and other useful things is utterly dire.

The penalties definitely aren’t high enough to make suitably profitable libel uneconomic (See also: The Daily Heil); but the place has earned its notoriety as a superb venue to shut somebody up even if they would crush your case in much of the rest of the world.

The totally awesome thing about them is that many are actually self aware enough to lie about their motivations for reading the paper when challenged.

That warm feeling around your heart when you read the Daily Mail is your congested and dying muscle tissue being flooded with more stress chemicals whilst the bile rises and burns the flesh around your gullet.